We do need to worry about election integrity

Don’t you find it laughable that the ones screaming the loudest about election integrity are the ones seemingly doing their best to interfere with it?

North Carolina Republicans have taken up the “boogeyman” mantra of trying to scare us into believing our elections are not trustworthy. But in only one instance, the 9^th Congressional election in 2018, has there been evidence of significant ballot fraud. And that corruption was committed by Republican Mark Harris, who was guilty of harvesting illegal absentee ballots. Our State Board of Elections handled the affair credibly and correctly.

Other than that instance there has been no significant proved evidence of voter fraud in our state.

Since 2012, our Republican led legislature has tampered with election laws under the guise of improving election integrity. But their underlying motives are to make election rules more favorable to their own party.

It began with the insistence of a photo ID to vote. Protests and court cases ensued, but most of the protests were over the limited options of approved photos. A court agreed with the plaintiffs, forcing more widely permitted photo options. In 2018, the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring a photo ID.

For almost a century the sitting governor of the state was allowed to appoint members of the State Board of Elections, with the majority of the five-person board being members of the governor’s political party.

Since most of our governors have been Democrats, Republican lawmakers passed Senate Bill 382 in December 2024 stripping power from the governor and assigning it to the State Auditor. Newly elected Auditor Dave Boliek, the nation’s only Auditor in charge of elections, had little or no experience in state government. But he was a Republican. A three-judge panel ruled the law unconstitutional, but a week after that ruling, and with no briefing or oral argument, the Republican NC Court of Appeals upheld the law.

One day later Boliek named two new Republican State Board of Elections members, giving it a 3-2 Republican majority. Minutes after the new board was sworn in, they fired the State Elections Director, who had held the post for six years, replacing her with the Republican House Speaker’s lawyer, Sam Hayes.

A pending bill was introduced to make most of the 68 workers employed “at-will” employees, implying about two-thirds would be terminated. All are intimidated.

The assaults continued, shifting to absentee ballots and early voting. In the 2026 March Primary elections only 14,697 of the 1,510,613 who voted did so by mail. A major reason so few voted by mail is a new law stated if mail-in ballots were not received by election day they would not be counted, repealing previous laws allowing for a three-day grace period if ballots were postmarked by election day. Also, there were new requirements for witness signatures, a required photo ID and new provisions allowing elections workers to throw out ballots. Voters are confused and confounded as to whether their vote will count.

The focus shifted to early voting, largely because of its popularity among Democrats. In the March primary 47% of all votes were cast before election day. Only 8.65% were cast by Republicans. Lawmakers wanted to reduce the number of days for early voting from 17 to 10 and either cut back or eliminate Sunday voting altogether. Black churches promoted “souls to the polls” events after Sunday worship. The change motives are clear.

The plain truth is there have been (and continue to be) so many changes and attempts to change the rules for voting that even those who strive to understand and abide by them are confused.

Auditor Boliek named Brad Woodhouse, former head of the North Carolina GOP, to a newly created elections liaison position, claiming Woodhouse would be his, “eyes and ears on the ground in the elections process,” and improve election integrity.

Woodhouse became the fox in the election henhouse. In at least six counties he tried to interfere with voting sites and policies. In Jackson County he wanted to deny Western Carolina University an early voting site, telling the board chair to, “don’t let them have a vote.” Woodhouse attempted to interfere in Pasquotank County elections by telling the Board of Elections chair to drop early voting on Sunday. His intent was clearly to eliminate early voting at college sites and change rules that favored Democrats.

Promptly, we learned Woodhouse was removed as the elections liaison and reassigned to another position within the Auditor’s office. The State Board of Elections was petitioned to summons Woodhouse to testify about his conduct. That petition that was denied when all 3 Republicans voted not to subpoena Woodhouse. Auditor Boliek announced there was nothing “nefarious” in the actions Woodhouse took, apparently supporting his actions.

After all these shenanigans should North Carolinians be worried about election integrity? You’re darned tootin’ we should be.

Tom Campbell is a Hall of Fame North Carolina broadcaster and columnist who has covered North Carolina public policy issues since 1965.  Contact him at tomcamp@ncspin.com